Monday, July 16, 2012

Espen and his baby sister

I used to feel fairly horrified at the thought of becoming a "Mommy blogger" and the idea that I would lose the ability to offer interesting opinions and insights to a world of tunnel vision and "isn't my kid cute?" blog posts. Well, now that I'm expecting my second child and we have already firmly established that my kid is, in fact, adorable, I am forced to face up to the reality that tunnel vision has truly set in and I'd frankly rather discuss potty training than current events any day. So a Mommy blogger I am, and a Mommy blogger I will be. And that's OK, because I have honestly never enjoyed my work and my life as much as I do as a mother.

Anyway, that was a rather lengthy way of warning you to not expect the baby-posts to stop anytime soon. Are you in?

One of the questions we've been asked the most about this baby is how Espen feels about it. I was pretty nervous about it at first, because Espen is the kind of kid who just needs his mom and dad, and as an only child, he doesn't like things that take our attention away from him. Case in point: the laptop or our phones, which he's always asking us to put away. Well, babies can't really be "put away," so I knew things could get a bit rocky when the baby comes and Espen realizes he's going to have to share us. For ever.

So we started talking to him about the baby from very early on in the pregnancy. We told him that there was a baby in mama's belly, and he told us that there was a robot in his. Then we asked him if he wanted a baby brother or a baby sister, and he wouldn't even consider the possibility of a brother. He has just been convinced from the start that he is having a baby sister, and of course, it turns out that he is absolutely right.

These days Espen mostly seems excited for her to come, even though I know he doesn't quite understand the ramifications of adding a sister to our family. He asks when she's coming, and knows that we have to wait for "Mama's birthday, then Daddy's birthday, then baby sister will come before Christmas." And he certainly knows that Espen's birthday is after Christmas! Sometimes the wait is too long, and then he sadly crawls into my lap and asks if his sister is lost, which is very sweet and a bit heartbreaking! It's so hard to explain time to a two year-old, even if he knows which picture will be on the calendar when she gets here. Maybe we'll make a paper chain countdown for him when the wait is a little bit shorter.

How about you? How did your family prepare older siblings for the arrival of a new baby? I'd love some ideas!

5 comments:

That's exactly what I did for my kids - "after Christmas, after your birthdays and daddy's birthday - kind of in the spring...". Worked well, even though I had to remind them like every day.

I also told them where the baby would be sleeping, showed them some cute little outfits the baby would be wearing and baby toys he would play with, etc. Got them even more excited. And asked them if they would help mommy once the baby came - help me get diapers, put his pacifier in, get him a toy when he cries, etc.

He'll be a great older brother!! :)

And I don't mind the mommy bloggers at all - that's where I get the best parenting ideas!!

Cute, cute. We bought a book called "I'm a Big Sister" and it helped a ton. It's by Joanna Cole and I'm pretty sure she has an "I'm a Big Brother" version too. Most of all, don't stress. We were terrified of how Lauryn would react. I never spent a night away from her until I went to the hospital to have Madi! And she was just fine. Espen will be a great big brother!